The final text of the global agreement out of COP24 lacked the urgency many climate campaigners were hoping for. (Photo: @CANEurope/Twitter)

Climate action groups slammed the outcome of the 24th annual Conference of the Parties (COP24) in Katowice, Poland on Saturday, calling the agreement reached by about 200 diplomats and negotiators “barely adequate” as a plan to ensure that countries will follow through with their emissions reduction pledges.

KATOWICE, POLAND – Reiterating the concerns of constituents across the United States whose health and safety is threatened by fossil fuel production and worsening impacts from climate change, more than 300 mayors, state representatives, and elected officials from 40 states released a letter today calling for a nationwide plan to phase out the production and use of fossil fuels and to ramp up renewable energy as part of a green new deal approach to energy and efficiency.Read More »

Binu Mathew, Editor of Countercurrents.org interviews Andre Vltchek

BM: You are one of the foremost critics of imperialism. Can you tell us
how you came to be who you are? Can you tell us about your formative years?

AV: Formative years… There were many of them, and actually, I feel that I am still evolving, until now. People always do, I believe and hope.

I was born in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, in an unbelievably beautiful city of Leningrad, built by insane Peter the Great and by a few no less insane Italian and French architects, on the shores of wide and powerful river Neva, right near the mosquito-infested swamps.Read More »

by Guillaume Garnier and Alex Lantier

Bernard Arnault, the master of Louis Vuitton: with a fortune of about US$80bn this plutocrat is now France’s richest man

As President Emmanuel Macron slashes wages and conditions in workplaces across France, the country’s 13 wealthiest people have become $27.6 billion richer since the start of 2018. This has made France the country in the world where billionaires are increasing their wealth the fastest, according to a report published by Bloomberg last week.

Since January alone, the wealth of French billionaires has increased by a whopping 12.2 percent. This compares to 7.1 percent growth for Japanese billionaires, 6.3 percent for Chinese billionaires and 1.2 percent for American billionaires.Read More »

by Patrick Martin

Time magazine announced Tuesday that it was giving its “Person of the Year” award to journalists facing violence and repression for their efforts to expose the truth. The four individuals and one organization selected by Time are certainly deserving of public sympathy.Read More »

Oil twilight. Credit: armbrusterbix/Unsplash

The following interview is the first in a new series that will address salient issues in the impacts and politics of climate change.

Avoiding the catastrophic effects of climate change requires a rapid move away from fossil fuels and lower emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. On behalf of The Wire, Nagraj Adve interviewed Simon Pirani, senior visiting research fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, to understand different aspects of this energy transition. He is also the author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (2018).

The questions are in bold. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.Read More »